Spanish Court Denies Extradition of J.P. Morgan Employee in 'London Whale' Case

By Christopher Bjork 

Spain's National Court on Thursday denied a U.S. request to extradite a Spanish J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. employee indicted in 2013 for allegedly hiding trading losses that cost the bank more than $6 billion, a case that became known as the "London whale" trading debacle.

Javier Martín-Artajo, a Spanish citizen who worked at J.P. Morgan's London office, had opposed extradition and told the Spanish court the accusations against him were false. Mr. Martín-Artajo's lawyer had previously said he was confident of exoneration after a "complete and fair reconstruction of these complex events is completed."

Mr. Martín-Artajo was released shortly after he had turned himself in.

In 2013, a federal grand jury in New York accused Mr. Martín-Artajo as well as a second J.P. Morgan trader, Julien Grout, of manipulating the value of a trading position "in order to hide the true extent of significant losses in that trading position," according to the Sept. 2013 indictment.

Mr. Grout has previously denied wrongdoing.

The trades were engineered by a trader known as the "London whale" who had worked closely with Messrs. Martín-Artajo and Grout. J.P. Morgan agreed to pay more than $1 billion to end an array of federal and overseas investigations into these money-losing trades.

The court cited Mr. Martín-Artajo's Spanish nationality and the fact that the alleged crimes took place outside the U.S. as reasons for denying the extradition request, according to a court writ.

A spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Manhattan, which brought the case, declined to comment.

Write to Christopher Bjork at [e-mail]

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